Competition Bureau gives its OK for Corus to buy rest of Teletoon from Astral

Hey there, time traveller!This article was published 18/3/2013 (1362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO - Corus Entertainment Inc. (TSX:CJR.B) says the Competition Bureau has cleared it to buy the remaining half of Teletoon and other specialty TV interests from Astral Media Inc. (TSX:ACM.B).

The asset sale was a condition of the Competition Bureau's approval of Astral's takeover by BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE), a $3.38-billion deal that would combine two of Canada's largest television and radio businesses.

Toronto-based Corus — which has been Astral's partner in several specialty channels — has conditionally agreed to buy the remaining 50 per cent of Teletoon, which includes the main channel, Teletoon Retro, their two French-language counterparts as well as the Cartoon Network (Canada).

Corus played a key role in helping Bell and Astral get Competition Bureau approval for their friendly deal by agreeing to $494 million in acquisitions.

They include the French language channels Historia and Series+, currently owned 50-50 by BCE and Shaw Media, a division of Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B).

The various transactions also require approvals from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

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